In-boat display-type fish lure holders have become popular over about the last decade because tackle boxes do not permit the ready retrieval of fishing lures by the fisherman. That is, if the fisherman uses a conventional tackle box to display his or her lures in the boat, one lure frequently hides the lure the fisherman desires and the fisherman frequently fumbles around attempting to retrieve the desired lure. Also, if the boat is moving, the bouncing motion frequently impacts the tackle box causing the lures to bounce out of the tackle box.
In an effort to solve these tackle box problems, there have been provided in the past a plurality of devices that permit the display of multiple lures inside the boat and enable the fisherman to see at least some of his lures outside the tackle box and permit the lures to be selected as desired during the fisherman's day.
One such device is shown and described in the Slacter, U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,511. This device includes a flat elastomeric panel with top clips that hook over the boat gunnel. This device is effective in displaying the lures to the fisherman, but because the panel is flat, it is difficult for the fisherman to rotate the hook when removing the lure from the panel because it is flat. Also, the clips that go over the gunnel, identified at 38 and 40 in the patent, permit the elastomeric panel to flop around on the side of the boat, and in some cases if the ride gets bouncy, the clips, because they are non-positive securing means, permit the panel to bounce off the boat gunnel.
Another patent that permits the display of lures to the fisherman, is shown and described in the Moore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,640., This device is a channel-shaped sheet metal member that has a square piece of foam in its channel. It is screwed to the boat and, therefore, is undesirable because it would damage the boat's surface. But over and above that, the fact that only the top surface of the foam is accessible for impaling fish hooks, it is really only useable with larger hooks. Furthermore, the foam is not glued in the channel, and hence, when the fisherman attempts to pull the hook upwardly, the foam in the channel starts to come out of the channel.
Finally, the Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,878, discloses a fish hook holder that is a rigid end capped tube 1 having a line of holes 3 on its top surface. This design has the disadvantage, as seen in FIG. 3, that it cannot hold small hooks. Furthermore, the single line of holes limits the number of lures that can be held by this tubular design.
An additional disadvantage in all of the above three discussed lure holders is that the lure holder itself is limited in the number of lures that can be held.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a more accessible lure holder and one that ameliorates the problems noted above in prior art lure holders.